Ode to green
by Misura
Summary: Honda wants to do something romantic for Otogi and asks his friends for suggestions.


Ode to green

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Warnings/notes : Otogi/Honda, slight hints at Seto/Joey and Yami/Yugi/Anzu, slightly silly, a bit of bad language.

Disclaimer : I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

written at 5th march 2004, by Misura inspired by a challenge by The Muse, Amused in 400words, a lj-community, which gave "Green" as the subject.

[!] This fic contains one minor spoiler for BattleCity.

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Honda was not a person who ran to his friends at the slightest misfortune or difficulty. He was more than able to take care of himself. He was smart, tough, intelligent, good-looking ... in short, he was the kind of guy girls dreamt about dating.

Thus, Honda wasn't too happy to breach the subject that was the reason why he had offered to buy Yugi, Anzu and (last but definitely not least) Joey ice-cream, after proposing to go for a quiet afternoon in the park, instead of going to the arcade or the mall.

"I need help," Honda said, bracing himself for the exclamations of surprise and astonishment that were sure to follow this surprising declaration. None came.

Looking around, he noticed why. Yugi and Anzu were sitting suspiciously close together, obviously too absorbed in their own thoughts to have heard anything of what was going on around them. And Joey ... well, he should have known he couldn't expect Joey to pay any attention after having provided him with food.

"Did you just say something, Honda?" Joey asked, apparently sensing Honda's look. Yugi and Anzu broke apart almost guiltily, trying to look interested. Not that Honda blamed them for being in love; he hadn't had much eyes or ears for anyone except Otogi in the first week of their relationship either.

"I need help," he repeated calmly. "It's about Otogi."

Joey almost dropped his ice-cream as he jumped up. "I -knew- that creep was no good! You want me to help you beat him up? I'm your man! Just tell me when and where."

"It's nothing like that." Honda rolled his eyes. Today wasn't the first time he'd wished Otogi hadn't humiliated Joey the way he had, but what's done was done. And, he had to admit, Otogi had made efforts to get in Joey's good graces. Some. When he wasn't too busy making fun of Joey.

"Then what is it, Honda? We'll do our best to help you," Yugi put in, smiling. Anzu nodded.

"Well ... " How to phrase this? "I want to do something romantic for him." Joey snorted, opening his mouth to reply, before a glare from Anzu made him change his mind.

"Do you have any ideas? What does he like?" Yugi inquired.

"I don't know!" Honda shook his head in frustration. "On any of our dates, it's always -him- who arranges things, -him- who picks the location."

"How about a dinner by candlelight?" Joey proposed.

"Can't you think of -anything- that doesn't involve eating?" Anzu sighed.

Joey grinned, not offended. "Hey, it worked for me and Seto!"

"You mean that you forgive and forget everything if someone bribes you with food?" Anzu snorted. Honda perked up. Maybe if Otogi ...

"No, I don't," Joey snapped. "I forgave him because he proved he cared enough about me to cancel a couple of meetings -and- promised me to take a week off later."

Anzu appeared impressed.

"I'm not a billionaire though," Honda remarked. "I'm pretty much broke right now."

"You could cook yourself," Anzu proposed brightly. "That'd be even more romantic! Just the two of you, surrounded by candles, with soft music playing in the background ... " Yugi's expression was that of someone making mental notes. Honda'd be willing to bet Anzu'd soon be treated to a very romantic evening. Not that that was helping -him- any.

"I doubt if my parents would let me. They'd probably insist on making it a family-dinner." His parents were cool, really. Never fussing over him coming home late (or staying over at Otogi's place) or bugging him about the fact that he was dating another guy. In some things though, they simply didn't understand him.

"How about you going over to Otogi's place to surprise him when he gets home?" Yugi suggested. "You mentioned he gave you a key so ... "

"Wouldn't that be kind of ... risky?" Anzu objected, before Honda could say anything. "What if something goes wrong? I mean, no offense, Honda, but you're not exactly an expert chef."

"She does have a point," Joey agreed.

"All right, so dinner's not an option. What else is there?" Honda groaned, prefering not to dwell on his talents in the kitchen, or lack thereof.

For a moment, it seemed that nobody had any more ideas. Then :

"Poetry!" Anzu snapped her fingers. "You could write him a love-poem!"

"Yami did the same for me and Anzu." Yugi blushed, making Honda wonder just what those poems had said. It was hard, really, to imagine Yugi as anything other than innocent, but Yami ...

"Could I read them?" Honda asked, feeling slightly embarrassed. "To give me an idea of how to do it."

"Ah, well ... I'm afraid that's not possible," Yugi confessed, making Honda's curiosity rise even more.

"Why not? Please, Yugi, I'm not going to copy them or anything, I swear. And I'm not asking this just 'cause I'm curious."

Anzu sighed. "Honda, you -can't- read those two poems."

"But- " Honda began.

"You can't, because they're both written in Ancient Egyptian," Yugi finished.

"Oh." Honda blinked. "But how did -you- - "

"We didn't," Anzu informed him. "We told him they were beautiful and that we were flattered, because he'd been spending so long on them. Even if we hadn't got the slightest idea what they actually meant."

"Ah." Honda didn't exactly understand that. Then again, he'd given up trying to understand the kind of relationship that a five-thousand-year-old spirit, a fifteen-year-old King of Games and the girl half the school wanted to date had a long time ago. Just like the one between an ex-punk and a billionaire.

From all of them, Honda was the only person with a normal love-life, really.

"Well, I'm sure I can think up something," Honda spoke optimistically.

-----

"Flowers? Why Honda, you're almost making me blush!" Otogi grinned, accepting the bunch of roses while deftly plucking away the small envelope and fishing out the card. "But you're blushing enough for two already, so one of us should keep his head cool."

Honda grumbled something.

" 'Dear Otogi ... your eyes are green ... I love you,' " Otogi read aloud, the expression on his face teaseful. "Why, Honda, thank you so much for informing me of that. Here I was, thinking my eyes were -blue-." Otogi winked.

Honda looked away. "I wanted to write you a love-poem."

Otogi clucked his tongue. "Well, it's not that I don't appreciate the thought. But you have to admit that 'your eyes are green' and 'I love you' don't even rhyme."

Honda sighed, wishing he'd just limited himself to giving flowers. "I like your eyes, so I thought I'd start my poem by saying something about them. You know, along the lines of 'your eyes are blue, like the depths of the sea and the sky on a cloudless summer-day'."

"Hmm, except that my eyes aren't blue," Otogi observed. "You could give that line to Joey though. Even if I doubt if Kaiba's the kind of guy to enjoy poetry."

Honda shrugged. "Anyway, I started to think of things that were green. Things that reminded me of you. Only they all ... kind of sucked."

Otogi raised one eyebrow in an inquisitive gesture.

"Grass is green," Honda explained. "Frogs are green too. Food that's gone bad turns green sometimes. Salad is green, and cabbage. Duck-weed is green."

Otogi made a face. "How very flattering to hear the color of my eyes reminds you of duck-weed and spoilt food."

Honda flushed, then lifted his head to stare at Otogi. "Once I'd written that first line, I simply couldn't come up with a second one. Because your eyes are ... the most beautiful green thing I can think of. I can't compare them to anything else without doing them an injustice."

Otogi smiled. "Now -that- is poetic. And cute."

"I'm not 'cute'," Honda mumbled. Puppies and kittens were 'cute'. Yugi carrying Anzu's bag was 'cute'. Honda was not.

"Although," Otogi continued, ignoring Honda's words as if he hadn't spoken, "I do feel a little disappointed my -eyes- are the part of me that you appreciate the most. After all, -everyone- can see my eyes. You could have picked a more ... private part of me to praise."

Honda glared at him. Otogi looked back wide-eyed and innocent.

"You are absolutely impossible," Honda groaned.

Otogi laughed. "But you love me anyway, don't you?"

"Every part of you," Honda sighed. "From your grass-green eyes down to your arrogant and infuriating personality and your lousy fashion-sense."

"Ah, Honda," Otogi shook his head. "You really -are- cute. And I love you too."

OWARI


End file.
